Weston finally took a few steps forward and heard laughter coming from a distance. “Did you argue
with your dad again?”
It was Xavier, who had seemingly come out of nowhere. His eyes shone with sly cunning as he patted
the dust off his clothes. The son of a wealthy family and pampered his whole life, there
s a sense of general presumptuousness in his gestures. It was apparent he had never been afraid of
anyone.
“You b*stard!” he snapped. “I did you such a big favor, and you dared to hang up on me?!”
Weston merely glanced at him and kept walking,
He had always been calm and unbothered by anything. Although Xavier was his uncle, he was nothing
but another man to Weston.
Xavier followed Weston quickly behind him.
“I was serious about the question I asked on the phone,” he told Weston. “When did you start to like
messing around with women? And what about that woman on the road? Who is she?”
Weston stopped abruptly and turned to Xavier.
“Let’s make a deal,” he said.
Xavier Ford might’ve looked friendly, but hiding beneath that jovial smile was a sly, old fox. After
managing to snag a large sum of money from Weston, he quickly disappeared as if he was a puff of
smoke.
Weston was not in a bad mood right now, so he hopped into his car and drove to a place far
away from home.
Fern City was no longer foreign to him. No one, not even the locals, was more familiar than he was with
the route Stella would take every day from her house to her workplace.
He turned a corner and parked his car across the road from a small restaurant. A vast tree blocked his
car from view, concealing it in a shroud of darkness.
Weston gazed at the apartment building across the road. He noticed that a specific room that was
supposed to have lights on was utterly dark. His brows furrowed.
Where could she have gone, so late in the evening?
He retracted his gaze and picked up his phone. Just as he was about to make a call, his eyes fell on
someone in the restaurant on the opposite side of the road…
Stella was there with two other men. She was dressed comfortably in casual clothes. There were a few
glasses of beer in front of them, and they seemed to be engaged in a lively conversation. They were all
wearing disposable gloves that were stained with reddish oil.
Stella wasn’t eating anything, though. In fact, she appeared to have left the food in front of her
completely untouched. All she did was take a few sips of her drink every once in a while. On the other
hand, the two men opposite her were fully enjoying the food. Weston recognized one of them as
Stella’s brother, Roger, but the other man was completely foreign to him. Looking rather senior and with
a pair of gold glasses, his gentle demeanor seemed out of place in the rowdy restaurant.
Weston stepped out of the car. He lit a cigarette and leaned against the car door, staring into the
restaurant from afar. As it burned slowly between his fingers, a tiny ember of light glowed in the
darkness
Stella listened quietly to the two men, her face showing utmost patience. Weston could only see her
silhouette, but from what he could see, she looked calm and totally at peace. Her two slender legs were
exposed, along with her delicate ankles and the pair of white sandals she was wearing
Weston couldn’t make out what Stella had heard, but she suddenly laughed heartily, with her eyes
dazzling. Stella looked radiant when she laughed, like a glimmer of pure light that radiated amidst the
cacophony of urban decay.
As the unknown man spoke, he would occasionally glance at Stella with a particular look in his eyes.
Weston was far from a naive boy, and he knew exactly what that look meant. Having known and
interacted with a million people, it took him no time to figure out the sort of intentions the man harbored.
He flicked off the ashes from his cigarette and exhaled a puff of smoke. His inky eyes were now
gloomy.
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